Here’s why your wheelie bin has been tagged

Black bins across Hull are being fitted with orange tags to remind residents that food waste should be placed in the brown bin.

The scheme originally began in March 2020 but was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It follows a study that found 26 per cent of household rubbish in black bins is food waste, which equates to 12,500 tonnes.

Councillor Rosie Nicola, Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services at Hull City Council, said: “Hull is one of the best performing cities in the country for recycling. We’re proud of that and know it’s down to the commitment of residents. We could do better though and that’s what the tagging scheme aims to achieve.

“The bin tagging scheme is proven to have been very successful in other council areas. It just gets people to think about how they manage their waste, because recycling as much as we can is one of our commitments to tacking global climate change. We need as many of us as possible to do their bit.

“If you receive a tag, it doesn’t mean you have done anything wrong, or that we have found food waste in your bin. It’s simply a friendly reminder to encourage you to separate your household waste, and if you’re already doing this, that’s great!”

Black bin waste is sent to an energy from waste facility, which costs twice as much and does not have the same environmental benefits as composting food waste at the council’s organic waste centre located in Willerby. All garden and kitchen waste collected in Hull and the East Riding is turned into compost at this facility.

Here are some useful reminders for when managing your household waste:

• Brown bins, kitchen caddies and liners are all free. The details are on the tags
• There is no need to use the liners if you don’t want to, we just provide them as most people prefer them to help keep their bins clean
• We know that kitchen waste can be smelly, there is no easy way of dealing with it, but there are ways to minimise this. We just need everyone to help
• All cooked and uncooked food waste can go in the brown bins

To find out more, visit the Hull City Council website.